Sometimes it’s necessary to do a remote reboot of a server. For example today I was installing some patches and after I was done told the server to reboot. Unfortunately something got hung and I could no longer remote desktop into the server to see the problem.

A great alternative is to remotely connect and do a reboot. Here is how:

1. Start -> Run -> compmgmt.msc
2. Right Click on Computer Management and select “Connect to another computer”
3. Once connected you can do stuff such as stop and start services.
4. To reboot or shutdown, right click on Computer Management again and click on properties.
5. Click the Advanced Tab.
6. Under Startup and Recovery, select the Settings button.
7. Click the Shutdown button. When you click the Shutdown button, you will be presented with more options such as the ability to restart instead of Shutdown, and to force applications to close if hung.

Now go reboot some machines!

Here is an error message you might receive when trying to set the network properties of an adapter after a P2V. What happens is the old network devices don’t get completely removed.

Here is the full error:

The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in the advanced dialog box?

To solve this issue do the following:

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
2. Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
3. Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.
4. Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.
5. Expand the Network Adapters tree.
6. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.

Now your old devices will be removed from the server.

From:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269155

A part of my job that I really enjoy is when I’m faced with challenges and learning new things to achieve them.

Today I was looking for a solution to pause or temporarily disable file shares in Microsoft Windows Server. There are some obvious and easy answer to do this such as removing users / groups, or stopping or pausing the Server service. However I had a couple constraints, one of which was keeping the Server service on as it was needed for a live migration. The other constraint was that I didn’t want to remove users and didn’t want to completely remove the shares as I didn’t want to recreate them as well as the permissions that go along with them.

I asked around but no one really had an answer for me, but I always know that I can turn to my fellow netizens. I turned to a great site, experts-exchange.com where I was able to post my question and receive several responses from people. Most of the responses weren’t that great or were things I already knew, but one person provided a really good solution. Here it is:

export registry: HKLM\SYSTEM\CCS\Services\LanmanServer\Shares
Then delete shares that you don’t want during migration (compmgmt.msc)
After migration -> import that registry hive back
restart server service

As an extra precaution I also backed up from the LanmanServer level.

This solution worked great and I was able to perform my migration without worrying that anyone would be accessing the server shares and with some extra relief that I wouldn’t have much post migration work to perform.

A Favicon, also known as a Favorites icon, is a small icon representing a website that is commonly displayed next to the URL in a web browsers address bar and/or the browser tab.

Below you will see a screen shot from Firefox showing my latest Favicon which is the letter G. You can also see the Favicon for Engadget’s website in the next tab.

In the past I have used graphic editors to create my Favicons such as Adobe Photoshop. To create a Favicon you typically start with an image that is 16×16 pixels in size. You can also do 32×32 which will scale down. Once finished creating the image, you would save the icon with a .ICO file extension. There are many converters that can be found on the web to convert your graphic file to this format. There are also plugins for Photoshop that will let you directly save in this extension.

To create my most recent Favicon I stumbled across a great website http://favicon.cc/ that allows you to create your own on the fly and automatically download it. You are presented with a grid that is 16×16 pixels in size and you have various paint tools to create your Favicon.

After downloading the Favicon you can upload it to your web hosting provider. You will need to place the following code inside the HEAD tags of your webpage.

Here is an example:

<html>
<head>
<title>My Website</title>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Be sure the href option has the correct file name and that you give it the proper path to the Favicon file. The example assumes that the file is located in the root directory.

Enjoy your new Favicon for your website!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been working on some site tweaks here and there. I’ve been playing with some CSS and sometime in the near future I’m going to be updating the look and feel of most of the fonts on the site which will be nice. Here is a preview of what the postings will look like:

It will take me some time to modify everything throughout the site, so I’ll be working on my dev site locally before pushing it out.

There are some outstanding themes out on the web to use, but I really like working on my own. You will also notice that I have a new Favicon I put on the site. I’ll be writing a post about that sometime soon.

All the best.

I’ve decided I’m going to be making some changes to the site.

First, I’m going to be changing the main domain to: gregashbaugh.com. Ashbaughonline.com will still work, but just redirect to gregashbaugh.com. I renewed my domain for 9 long years on GoDaddy. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) guides will tell you it’s better to register your domains for the longest amount of time that you can. It’s one of the many things that engines such as Google use to rank your site. I’m not overly concerned with rank since I’m not trying to sell anything, but it’s good nonetheless.

I’ve also been thinking about some design changes. I get tired of the same thing after awhile, so I might be making some minor changes here and there.

I still have a few things to update after my upgrade tonight which I might get to tomorrow. Also my rounded corners haven’t been working in IE for some time, but now they’re fixed.

Thanks for visiting my small part of the Interweb. :]

Here is an error message I was getting after I upgraded to the new version of WordPress tonight. To fix it I went to the Permalinks section which is found under Settings, and changed it to Default. Then I changed it back to my normal structure and everything is working good now.

Hope that might help someone out.